The cloud has the potential to represent a sizable number of changes in the way work gets done the world over, from opening up the field to talent the world over, to changing the way information is archived and disseminated in businesses. One particular point the cloud is changing is in the issue of cloud professional services, as a new report from Technology Business Research Inc. (TBR) is showing that most of the market is looking to, on some level, bring in cloud professional services to current operations.

The TBR study, covering 794 end users of cloud professional services across North America, Europe and Asia, showed that 82 percent of enterprises were either about to or already had adopted cloud professional services in 2014 alone. Further, those enterprises were likely to continue turning to cloud professional services through the rest of 2014 and beyond, though the exact levels of involvement were likely to change as budgets did.

Indeed, budgets also played a major role in the TBR study, as TBR found budgets—including enterprise spending and future expectations—to be “bloated and optimistic” in the 2013 study, but the 2014 study found that “budgets have contracted,” mostly owing to a combination of overall economic issues on the global stage and the general maturation of cloud components, requiring less overall investment to keep operational. 2013's numbers, the TBR study notes, reflected how “late adopters” were playing catch-up to get cloud infrastructures where same should have been, but in 2014, budgets retracted to reflect that the infrastructures were largely in place, and now only wanted for a bit of refinement. Moreover, in 2015, TBR expects spending to expand once more following issues of “pent-up demand” running from 2014.

Those interested in providing such services, meanwhile, will be eager to know that one of the top concerns in the field is overall security, and one of the biggest drivers of adopting cloud professional services is the desire to bring in hybrid integrations, so framing marketing efforts in terms of these two points will likely be a major part of success in the field.

TBR's cloud analyst, Cassandra Mooshian, offered up some comment about the survey, saying “Significant opportunity lies across service lines, but particularly for advisory and managed services as organizations seek cloud-driven business outcomes and hybrid integration.”

It's fairly easy to see why there would be ongoing interest in cloud professional services, if for no other reason than the field covers so many sub-classifications that there's some kind of value involved for just about any firm out there. Cloud professional services can offer advantages to marketing, to general operations, and to a variety of other functions throughout the business in general. The use of cloud professional services in business can help reduce the overall level of risk a business might face in some endeavors, and make other less complex, thus improving efficiency and potentially bolstering the bottom line.

Some might look askance at the idea of taking just under 800 participants on three continents and trying to derive conclusions about an entire industry based on said pool, but there's likely to be a lot of validity here as that pool represents a substantial chunk of worldwide business. Cloud professional services may well have a great market to come, and plenty of room for further opportunity to come.